Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb Present participle of sprawl.
  • adjective That sprawls
  • adjective Expansive; extensive

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective spreading out in different directions
  • noun an ungainly posture with arms and legs spread about

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Examples

  • International soccer authorities and law enforcement officials are struggling to combat rampant match-fixing by what they describe as sprawling networks of organized crime, a problem that has plagued the sport for decades but appears to have intensified recently.

    NYT > Home Page

  • International soccer authorities and law enforcement officials are struggling to combat rampant game fixing by what they describe as sprawling networks of organized crime, a problem that has plagued the sport for decades but appears to have intensified recently.

    NYT > Home Page

  • International soccer authorities and law enforcement officials are struggling to combat rampant match-fixing by what they describe as sprawling networks of organized crime, a problem that has plagued the sport for decades but appears to have intensified recently.

    NYT > Home Page

  • Nowlan has adopted the picaresque narrative, usually to be found in sprawling tales spread out in both time and space, to create a more foreshortened, more intensely realized, indeed more "concentrated" work of fiction that would not have the same impact had it been "shaped" in some other way, had it instead come in the form of a conventional "well-made story" employing the contemporary default mode of "psychological realism."

    Narrative Strategies

  • We'll be inducing a commute from Puyallup, meaning that we'll make it easier and cheaper to live there, which then drives development of cheap housing, which then drives up the population in sprawling areas.

    Parking as Far as the Eye Can See « PubliCola

  • So began a message-board discussion on the website of Men's Health magazine, with debate on the all-powerful clothing label sprawling over several pages.

    Julian Dunkerton: People just love the cut of his cloth |Observer profile

  • Here is a dated but thoroughly delightful article about maintaining continuity in sprawling, multiple-creator-written series.

    Earth-2 Oscar & Felix

  • Most of us live in sprawling chaotic cities that have expanded monstrously in the last decades, without anything resembling urban planning.

    First Stop in the New World by David Lida: an interview with the author

  • Most of us live in sprawling chaotic cities that have expanded monstrously in the last decades, without anything resembling urban planning.

    First Stop in the New World by David Lida: an interview with the author

  • Erase for a moment the images of Nigeria that may come to your mind — of burning garbage dumps in sprawling Lagos or unemployed young men brandishing jerry cans in the Niger Delta.

    One Nation, Under Gods

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